Related News

Related Club News

Maritzburg United fight back to draw with Vasco ga Gama

Maritzburg United fought back from a two goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Vasco da Gama on Saturday night.

It was like something out of a nightmare for the Team of Choice in the opening 45 minutes. The home side were simply not able to get hold of the ball and found themselves going into the half-time break two goals down.

For Vasco, they were simply superb as they played some beautiful football in the first half and rightly scored two goals.

The visiting side were on the attack from the word go and saw their first attempt on goal coming in the second minute. Dirang Moloi fired a shot in from the edge of the 18-yard box, but his attempt skimmed the wrong side of the upright.

The man causing all the problems for the United defence was Vasco’s Sibusiso Zuma and his first effort on goal came in the fifth minute. He did brilliantly to beat two defenders before firing a powerful shot just over the cross bar from roughly 16-yards out.

Vasco’s pressure on the United goal intensified and they only had to wait another minute before they did find the back of the net.

Keenin Lesch shot from 18-yards out and pulled the best out of Shu-Aib Walters who dove full stretch to his left to deny him, but he only succeeded in parrying the ball into the path of Jonathan Armogam. The Vasco player mad no mistake side-footing the ball home from six-yards out, 1-0.

Zuma again pestered the United goal in the 19th minute when he fired another potent shot from the edge of the 18-yard area, but again he saw his effort going centimetres wide of the target.

It was only a matter of time before the Cape Town side found their second goal and it came in the 31st minute and Zuma was the man to grab the goal.

Josephy Kamwendo drove down the left flank and supplied an inch perfect cross to find Zuma unmarked inside the box. The Vasco striker provided a clinical finish from about four yards out to double his side’s lead, 2-0.

United were virtually non-existent in the first half and were more than happy to hear the half time whistle.

The second half saw United come out a renewed side as they started creating some chances on goal.

The home side came extremely close to pulling a goal back five minutes into the second 45 when Kurt Lentjies whipped in a free-kick from the right side of the field and Mor Diouf rose highest to head the ball goalwards, but he saw his effort strike the woodwork.

Still, Vasco were not going to simply let United run at them and they also created some good chances in the second half. One example of this was in the 59th minute when Walters produced a great save to deny Rudi Isaacs a headed goal.

In the 81st minute Jason Barnard pulled off his first meaningful save when he dove full stretch to his left to make a finger tip save to deny United’s Musa Nyatama from 12-yards out.

Two minutes later, however, United were able to find the goal that got them back in the game. Schalkwyk fired home a powerful shot from roughly 12-yards out after a great passing move set him up in front of goal.

With only a couple minutes to go the Team of Choice pushed forward in search of an equaliser and they found it in the 92nd minute when substitute Nyatama latched onto a loose ball after a goal mouth scramble and fired his side level, 2-2.

Terms of use:

The comments posted do not reflect the views of KickOff.com. Users are reminded that no misuse of this comment facility will be tolerated. Any abusive, racist, inflammatory, defamatory, discriminatory comments or hate speech will be deleted and the user banned.

If legally obliged we will hand over your information under the Protection of Information Act.